A great article on the interconnectedness of mental health and racial violence.

"The events of 2014 are not unique. Not the killings of Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, Dontre Hamilton or John Crawford, among others. They are part and parcel of an extended pattern of many decades of neglect: both of our poorest communities and our police. Each of which is traumatized, and each which is poorly served in terms of mental health resources. It’s a toxic mix, and one that will continue to produce noxious results.

We cannot afford to be naïve any longer. We know there is racism — individual and institutional — within our police departments. We strongly suspect that many officers must be suffering from some form of PTSD due to their experiences on the job. Likewise, we know that members of impoverished communities are often mired in cyclical dysfunction that has complicated historical and sociological foundations, and this produces a litany of mental illnesses that worsen as they go untreated.